Research News

Teachers and children attending an event held at the Kabete Junior Academy on 3rd August 2008, were treated to the première of a cartoon, The hyena and the ostrich, which will feature in the Kenyan TV show for children, the Knowzone. The film is the first cartoon written, drawn and created in Kenya.

Mediae Trust, a Kenyan media company best known for the hit drama series Makutano Junction, is creating Knowzone, a new children's series for television. The major component of the Knowzone is the Storyzone. Using words highlighted in the Kenyan School Curriculum, stories are created and then turned into an animation film, giving them both an educational and an entertainment value.

Before the showing of the new animation, Simiyu Barasa explained how the programme writers take concepts and words, weave them into stories, remove violence and sad scenes in original story, choose what characters will carry each message, write the stories up, and give them to the animation department. Bob Muchiri, the animator, then showed how the stories are visualized, the creation of storyboards, and the making of the cartoons.

Makutano Junction and Knowzone receive funding from DFID.

More information

• Stories we tell our children - Online article on KenyaImagine by Simiyu Barasa.
• Project record for Makutano Junction
• Read the Guardian Article: TV soap 'way in' to difficult topics